Vashon’s Got Talent
A community talent showcase, art exhibition and reception to raise funds for Safe Grad Night at Vashon High School (VHS) will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, March 3, in the VHS Theater.
The evening will start with appetizers, a student art exhibition, a silent auction and a raffle in the VHS Great Room. The show will start at 7 p.m.
Performers will include signer/songwriter Kat Eggleston; musical trio Maire Kennan, Lewis Schofield and Jack Odegard; dancer Talia Roybal; comedian Pearce Cobarr; musicians Eva Cain and Daryl Redeker; the Vashon High School Drama Club performing a scene from “Alice in Wonderland,” and the family band of Louisa, Giacomo, Arlette and Steffon Moody.
All proceeds from this event go toward putting on Safe Grad Night 2023 — a top-secret, all-night adventure to begin immediately after the Vashon High School graduation ceremony. Safe Grad Night is sponsored by VARSA and is open to all graduating island seniors regardless of whether or not they have attended Vashon High School.
Admission to the fundraiser is $30 and includes pre-show appetizers. Purchase tickets at brownpapertickets.com.
Irish music masters play
A concert featuring two masters of Irish traditional music will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 2, at the Vashon Havurah, featuring seven-time Ireland accordion champion and islander John Whelan, joined by Chicago’s own award-winning Irish fiddle player Seán Cleland.
Donations for the concert are $20 – $25 at door. Please contact Jan Strolle at 206-228-0730 or janstrolle@comcast.net for reservations and information.
Chamber Orchestra Concert
The Vashon Maury Chamber Orchestra (VMCO) will return to the Kay White Hall of Vashon Center for the Arts (VCA) at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 5, with “Ein Musikalischer Spass.”
The concert is named, in German, for Mozart’s “A Musical Joke,” a divertimento for two horns and string quartet, which will feature hornists Richard Reed and Jill Jaques in VMCO’s concert. The program will also include Bartok’s “Romanian Folk Dances,” and violist Maria Bokor will play Bruch’s “Romance for Viola and String Orchestra.
Islander Danielle McCutcheon will join Bokor for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach’s “Viola Duet in G Major,” and Vashon High School senior, Daalny Meyer, will perform the first movement of “Spring” from Vivaldi’s popular “Four Seasons.”
The concert will also include a game of musical chairs with audience participation.
Purchase tickets at vashoncenterforthearts.org or by calling 206-259-3007. Tickets are free for youth 18 and younger.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
The world-famous South African singing ensemble, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, will perform at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 11, at Vashon Center for the Arts.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, the group, founded and led by Joseph Shabalala, had become well-established as the most successful singing group in South Africa. In the mid-1980s, Paul Simon visited South Africa and incorporated the group’s rich tenor/alto/bass harmonies into his famous “Graceland” album – a landmark recording that was considered seminal in introducing world music to mainstream audiences.
Over the years, Ladysmith Black Mambazo also collaborated with Dolly Parton, Josh Groban, Emmylou Harris and others, and appeared in the Michael Jackson film, “Moonwalker.” In 1993, they accompanied Nelson Mandela to his Nobel peace prize ceremony in Oslo.
Shabalala retired from Ladysmith Black Mambazo in 2014 and died in 2020, but four of his sons perform in the current lineup. The group has been nominated for 17 Grammy awards, winning five, most recently for best world music album in 2017.
Purchase tickets at vashoncenterforthearts.org.
Talk on the Rock
Islander Judy R. Twedt, climate-scientist-turned-sound artist, will present a multimedia talk and performance, “Requiem for the Holocene: Listening to 800,000 Years of Earth’s History,” at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 12, at Vashon Center for the Arts.
Twedt’s new compositions express climate data from ice cores, satellites and weather stations through music.
Twedt came to climate music through a doctoral program in Atmospheric Sciences and climate modeling at the University of Washington. Now, she has shifted her focus to making climate soundtracks that have been featured on the TED stage and in museums and radio shows around the world.
Purchase tickets at vashoncenterforthearts.org.
Original Works ’23
Original Works, an annual showcase of original choreography by local dance students and community members, will take place at 7 p.m. Friday, March 17, and 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, March 18, at Vashon Center for the Arts.
This year, the program will present works by current VCA students, alumni, and faculty in addition to Vashon Dance Academy faculty and Seattle dance professionals. Purchase tickets at vashoncenterforthearts.org.
